New Zigur Shop: Disenchant Magic Artifacts

[Nim]

This idea just occurred to me and I'm posting it here before I forget it. If we had a way to remove the arcane power flag from artifacts, it would simplify things by a lot. Heck, it doesn't even have to be a Zigur shop. It can be an Angolwen shop, too.

[darkgod]

You mean so that antimagic would truly have no downside at all ?

[noboruwatanabe]

If it also removed whatever the arcane buff was, I could maybe see this happening. If it left it the same and just removed the arcane forces flag, it would unbalance the AM/non-AM decision.

As it is now, the only reason (other than the runes) for melee chars not to go AM is because there are awesome arcane artifacts. Being able to use those and AM abilities at the same time would be silly strong.

[Nim]

Was a quick post because I was heading out to work, but yes, the arcane buff would be removed. Possibly reconfigure it into an AM artifact with different powers entirely. Maybe even rename it and tweak the description, too? I know it sounds a lot simpler to do than it really is, but I don't want to remove the downsides completely. I originally thought of it along the lines of Spellhunt Remnants that destroyed the magic in an artifact, not the artifact itself. I got the idea when I found the Arcanum addon arti Whirlwind and saw that it was both nature and arcane powered. I thought, "It would be great if I could keep this somehow when I go AM."

[Sirrocco]

That... pretty much is the cost of AM. You are constantly in the position of watching awesome arcane gear pass you by. If this displeases you, go Angolwen.

I could maybe see something where you bring magic artifacts for breaking and they give you some sort of Zig credit that is somehow nifty later on (using something similar to the fortress energy counter). Even with that, though, there are problems...

- It decreases the cost of antimagic as a player choice. Given that we have other posts on this board trying to make the other options competitive, this is not so hot.

- It's annoying. Rather than quickly and easily breaking artifacts in your mystic furnace, you have to trot them over to the Zig. This is even more of an annoyance before you unlock the fortress and/or antimagic, as you slowly accumulate arcane artifacts that you shouldn't use. It gets even worse when you're hanging out over by the Sunwall, as you lose access to Zig-based resources entirely for a while.

[SageAcrin]

If it weren't for AM not really needing the advantage, I'd suggest a kind of Nature Sacrifice option.

Basically the ability to crush any Arcane artifact to dust with the power of nature, in exchange for random minor-but-permanent random and not guaranteed gifts for it.

Stuff like random +1s to a random non-Magic stat, +1-3 to a random save, +1-3 to Phys or Mindpower, +1-3 Defense or Accuracy, +2% to a random element, that sort.

Then again, such a thing would be very low impact and mostly thematic and psychologically appealing, rather than actually good, so maybe it could work...

It makes Spellhunt less weird, too, it's not an abnormal and strange artifact but a kind of created attempt to match how Zigur dealt with artifacts, in a more controlled and powerful way.

[Nim]

Heh. I figured it wasn't really viable, to be honest. More of a passing 'wouldn't it be nice' thing I thought I'd share. I think Remnants has the angle pretty well covered, as you said. The Nature Sacrifice thing is interesting, though. You're right that it doesn't really need the advantage, though.

[0player]

As for Nature Sacrifice, we already have Spellhunt Remnants for crushing arcane scum.

[Sirrocco]

Also, Sage, with the sheer number of arcane artifacts that you could eventually rack up, Nature Sacrifice as you describe it could start to get *very* powerful.

[SageAcrin]

That's why it wouldn't always give anything.

[Sirrocco]

Huh. Maybe stick it in the can in case we ever decide that antimagic could use a few buffs and are looking for ideas.

[fuzzynord]

If disenchanting is allowed. I think the buff that causes the uses arcane power source should also be removed. In my mind, artifacts are things that can't be changed (probably from playing DCSS), so I don't think they should be disenchantable. Although, if that logic applies, then anything but green, blue and purple items would probably suffer to the same logic.

off topic:
Do the different colored item texts have special names?

[Sirrocco]

fuzzynord: in this case, "disenchant" actually translates to "render down for bennies" rather than anything that will leave you with any sort of gear afterwards.

[Mewtarthio]

off topic:
Do the different colored item texts have special names?

Certain particularly powerful egos are classified as "greater" egos. Green items have no greater egos, blues have exactly one, and purples have two. Whites have no egos whatsoever. All the other colors are unique items (yellow fixedarts, orange randarts, and salmon "rares").

Anyway, the trouble with stripping the arcane egos is that it suddenly becomes a lot easier for antimagic users to get white items. Most of the uses for white items are blocked by antimagic, of course, but I'm pretty sure they can still benefit from Limmir's services, which is pretty much the only reliable way to use whites in the first place.